On a spur of the moment decision, I decided to go to the theater today. A show called “Fat Pig” by Neil LaBute. The director of the show was enthusiastic about this show before it was even a sure thing. After watching it I can understand why. If you read this before the show is over this weekend, and you like theater, go See the theater page to get more information. It is rated ‘R’, so leave the kids at home.

The show was vulgar, crude and occasionally ugly. It was also very real. While you may not know a person exactly like any of the four characters, you probably knew at least one.

Talking with people after the show made us think that we were watching people, kind of like intruding in their lives or spying on them. Not at all like watching a show to entertain. It was occasionally very funny. At other times it made you think.

I can’t say I enjoyed the show. I really enjoyed parts of the show, but the show as a whole was not an enjoyable experience. It was a thinking and introspective experience and it has my full recommendation to stop what you are doing to catch the show.

While I’m on the subject of our visit to the zoo…  well, in some ways it wasn’t our best visit, that’s probably why it took me almost a week to get motivated to write about it.  A few of us were still recovering from the flu, while others in the family were coming down with it, so the lot of us that day were quite crabby!  But we did see some amazing animal action, including the often inactive octopus – he was moving all around his tank, which prompted many questions from  my kids, my husband, and myself.  I did a bunch of research when I got home, and I learned what I already suspected – octopi are awesome!  Here are some of the coolest facts:

•  The octopus has a short lifespan; varying among species from 6 months to 5 years for the larger species held in captivity.

•  Octopi are invertebrates, meaning they have no hard skeleton, and they are very intelligent creatures – considered the most intelligent of all the invertebrates.  They have been known to manipulate man-made objects, like opening jars or even solving puzzles and mazes.  Check out the following video – an octopus navigates a water maze by getting out of the water and going over the maze!  (The major action starts about 2 minutes into the video.)

•  Because of the fact that octopi don’t have skeletons, they can squeeze their bodies (which is actually that bulbous looking mass most people mistake for a head – and it contains three hearts!) through extremely small openings.

We had a chance to visit the Toledo Zoo the other day and snapped this amusing pic of a meerkat just chillin’.  Is this a common pose for a meerkat?  I’ve never seen one sitting up like this before last Saturday.  Anyone watch Meerkat Manor?

Welcome to our blog site for our student ministries small group!  Wow  – we really need a group name so we can actually give this blog a real name!  Put your suggestions for a name below, and that’s something we can discuss at the end of our next small group meeting – see our countdown  timer on the side…

Here are the pictures we took last Wednesday:

So girls, I’ve done my homework and posted these pics, here’s some hw for you:

– Make a comment on this blog post!  Just say hey or post suggestions for a name for our group – it can be almost anything we want, this is just for us, mainly so we have a name for our website!  But it should reflect or give a hint about our group’s purpose: our weekly journey getting closer to Christ.  Hoping to hear from ALL of you (spread the word to the girls whose email I don’t have PLEASE!)

Have a really GREAT Thanksgiving and remember to make time on your turkey day to praise and be thankful to Him for all of your life’s blessings!!

I haven’t done one of my board game reviews in awhile, so I thought I’d write about a little treasure we found at the Goodwill tonight and actually had time to play – Totally 80’s Trivial Pursuit.  Since my husband and I were both children in the 80’s, we thought we’d enjoy this version of the popular trivia game – even though I threatened to kick some butt since  between the two of us, I’m the one who’s chosen to fill her head with useless knowledge (most of which I’ve forgotten over the years anyway!), but what I’m trying to say is that I usually win the trivia games in our family.  So we start to play the game, and the pawns are in the shapes of various pop culture staples in the 80’s.  There is a Care Bear, a computer, a Trapper Keeper, and a CD – cute!  And I loved how the pie pieces are stored in the bases of the pawns when players earn them!  My only complaint is that there definitely should have been more pawns – can’t believe there wasn’t even a Rubik’s Cube pawn?!?  How about some Jelly Shoes?  A banana clip?  Cabbage Patch Kid?  Atari console?  The list could go on and on…  Here are the ones they did include:
But anyway, my husband did end up beating me, but I have two excuses.  1.  The kids came down in the middle of the game and kept trying to play with the pawns which was distracting and I  lost my focus.  2.  My husband is older than me, and therefore he remembers more of the ’80’s – haha!  Ouch!  Ok, so I’m a little bit of a sore loser –  rematch tonight?

(I guess this didn’t end up being much of a review.  It’s a Trivial Pursuit game, nothing new there.  But if you were around during the 80’s and enjoy getting quizzed about the decade of excess, you’re in for some fun!)

I know that there have been many spins on the themes of It’s A Wonderful Life and I revisited one of my favorites the other night.  In The Next Generation episode “Tapestry,” Captain Jean-Luc Picard lies in sickbay following a mortal wound sustained during a battle.  While clinging to life, the good captain is stands on the threshold to eternity where he is greeted by the wonderfully charismatic entity known as Q.  The nearly omnipotent character offers Jean-Luc a choice: spend eternity by his side or return to the past and relive a life defining moment.  If Jean-Luc changes the event, Q promises him that nothing earth-shattering will come of it.

The event centers around an incident involving the young, brash, devil-may-care Ensign Jean-Luc Picard and two of his fellow Starfleet Academy friends.  The trio is on starbase for one last hurrah before going their separate ways.  After a game of chance, Picard’s friend discovers that he has been cheated by a rather nasty Naussican and a bar fight ensues.  At the end of the fight, Jean-Luc is stabbed through the heart (a feeling he laughs at), requiring him to receive an artificial replacement.  Also involved is the relationship involving his female friend which may or may not be a regret.

Will Picard change the course of his life?  What will happen if he does?  Although he is “just not that important” to the universe as a whole, what changes will occur in his personal life?  Or will he simply be lead off to an eternity of what must be his own personal hell with Q?

It’s time for me to officially make my presence known on Facebook.  If you watch the awesome NBC comedy “The Office”, then you’ll understand the reference in the title of this blog post involving a creative Halloween costume worn by Jim Halpert, a character on my favorite show – it was hilarious!

But back to me learning Facebook…  some time ago I signed up for a Facebook account (don’t even remember why), but then I stopped using it because it started doing freaky things behind my back – like randomly adding mere acquaintances and business associates as my Facebook friends.  That was NOT the way I had envisioned social networking!  But my youth group kids have been BEGGING me to join Facebook, and since I took pictures of them last week, we decided that my homework challenge is to get on Facebook so I can post our pictures.  So here I go, and the first thing I’ll be doing is looking for a way to NOT invite everyone on my email contact list to be my Facebook friend!

Since I’ve been sharing some family hints in the kitchen, I remembered many stories and recipes that went together. Most of these stories were due to the fact that my children were picky about the food they ate. Some are more picky, some grew out of the picky stage. As you may be able to tell, some are still in the picky stage. I’ve decided that my blog is not the ‘stage’ that I want for these stories and recipes. Some may make it here, just because they were so much fun. Others will not. After this project is finished I may want to share the completed work, at least with my girls. 😉

Why share this here? I think I need a little bit of pestering just to get it done. So I’m asking, maybe begging, for my loyal readers to comment on this post every so often. Ask me how it is going, or even if I worked on it.

Some fun Huh?

Ok… former director and current fellow cast member, this is for you (I expect a comment, btw 😉 ) Tonight began the third week of rehearsals and there was A LOT GOING ON!  We have posters to distribute and I grabbed enough to paste all over E-town.  We were all informed that Hicks-TV (or is it HIX=TV?) is going to be by tomorrow night to film a piece on the show.  My aforementioned former director/current fellow cast member mentioned that this was her least favorite part of her directorial debut?  I thought my debut on the news was a blast.  Even Travis said it was very humorous as I threw the interviewer for a whirl.  Here is a link, Beth… just for you (you can have something to watch as well as read).  I must also commend our director in his continued efforts to step into multiple roles for missing cast members… male and female alike.

As for rehearsal, it is coming along quite nicely (which is subjective… I don’t think nice is a good way to describe Mr. Potter).  Apparently, my evilness is improving but he said I need to slow down a bit… which I have heard before.  Well… as soon as my goon decides to show himself, it will be easier to make my entrances and exits.   But even going through the scenes, I am developing even more ideas and with just under a month to go…

Oh, yes.  On the way to my car following rehearsal, I was flashed by said cast member and she had her young son with her as well… SHAME ON YOU!  I AM SHOCKED!  😀

I’m not sure how many people remember the story of ‘Stone Soup’. I’ve heard it many different ways, but the basic story is always the same. Someone who is hungry (beggar, soldier, hobo, ect.) offers to make stone soup when nobody has any food to share. He starts with a pot, some water and a stone. All during the making of the soup, he says out loud how good it would be if he just had 1 more item to add. By the end of the story he has made a pot of soup, getting all the ingredients from those who turned down his meal request earlier. He shares the soup and they all agree it was the best soup ever.

I’ve made something like stone soup for years with the various leftovers we have had. I don’t think I actually used a stone, but I did call it stone soup once or twice. That is when I wasn’t serving garbage or poison (family joke, no poison or garbage actually served. 😉 ). So when you have a lot of leftovers that won’t quite make a meal, see if they could be added to a stone soup recipe.

Basic Stone Soup

Cooked Meat
Seasonings
Vegetables
Noodles/pasta if desired
Stock

If the vegetables are fresh you will need to cook them in the stock before adding other ingredients. Use Chicken stock with leftover chicken or turkey. Beef stock with leftover Beef. For leftover Pork, you can use either or combine both. Vegetable stock is also good for all meats. For a cream soup, add milk and thickener of choice at the end of the cooking time. My favorite thickener is leftover mashed potatoes.

Varieties
Mexican — Go wild with your spices, use some taco seasoning. Use a tomato or vegetable stock. Good vegetables in this are corn, green beans, pork and beans, pinto, lima or kidney beans. Left over pasta sauce, marinara, sloppy joes works well.

Oriental — Try adding Ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, soy sauce to the meal. This works well with leftover chicken. Add in oriental vegetables.

Beef Stew. Great when you have leftover beef on any kind. You can even make hamburger stew. Add stew vegetables and use mashed potatoes to thicken the stock.

Stone Chili — Left over Meatloaf, hamburgers, sloppy joe, ect. Add regular chili seasonings, some canned tomato soup and beans.

Try your own variations.

This also works with non leftovers. Just add ingredients until it tastes the way you want.

If you really want a group experience, have everyone (at least 4 people) bring a soup ingredient. Combine all at a Stone Soup party.